Update and Pintrest

Once again, I am deciding to keep up with the blog and update it periodically. Now that school is over I need some motivation to get me painting again after a long hiatus. If you have noticed I updated the graphics on my page. I got into working with Adobe Illustrator recently and found it to be a fancier version of AutoCAD. I still have some improving to do but I figured the graphics were good enough for the blog. But anyways, we all want the minis. Here are some of my most current ones.

First up is Captain R. He was fun to paint. Decided to try a little NMM on the sword. 

Second up is the Royal Paladin from the first edition Super Dungeon Explore. My NMM still needs some refinement. So I decided to purchase a set of these for help:

I started to use them on some miniatures and so far the results have been really good. I'll update soon with a full review.

For those on Pintrest. I have a Pintrest board now. You can find me on my Miniart Design Pintrest. Lots of cool stuff to find and pin.

Well hopefully I can stay committed to writing occasionally. For anyone still reading this, thanks for sticking around and as always, Keep on gaming!

Been a long time ;)

Hey all,
It's been a long time hasn't it? Well these days school is keeping me really busy. Whenever I can find the time to take a break from writing c++ code, I do some painting. Well my method was slow but it worked and I actually got a few miniatures painted. Check em out!

Starting with the Pumpkin Head from Impact miniatures

Next is a Blue Castle Crashers from Velvet Mark and also from Impact Miniatures

 

I also painted Candy and Cola the SDE version from Soda Pop Miniatures

Practicing some dark skin tones with the acrobat from Impact Miniatures

and finally finished off with Kisa SDE version from Soda Pop Miniatures

Well I hope to continue posting more as I get them done. Take care for now and keep on gaming!

1/285 Robotech scale buildings and a Chibi House

Hey everyone,
I've been neglecting my blog a bit but as far as doing hobby related projects, I've been ramping up constructive time on it. Over the past months I've been working on 2 big projects simultaneously. I took part in the Robotech RPG Tactics Kickstarter and after spending more money than I should my head started spinning with great ideas for terrain. My first terrain project for this game is a 1/285 scale gas station. It's pretty much done construction wise just needs some paint.

The whole project was constructed using a variety of Plastruct rods and sheets and all precisely cut using my new Chopper II from Northwest Short Line. This chopper is awesome!!! It was the perfect Father's Day present from my family. It's been getting so much use these past 2 months. If you don't have one, get one. You'll never use anything else so much for scratch building.

I also made a small scale Scott Bernard figure in cyclone armor. Not really useful for anything else but to get a sense of scale of the buildings at 1/285 scale. He might just end up being a statue at the gas station entrance.

so moving on to project number 2......

a Chibi House!! After seeing Scenery-Planet's awesome table I knew I had to make some of my own.

I'll post more of a write up on it but if you happen to frequent the forums at Impact Miniatures you'll see more info about it there under the chibi adventurers section. I know what you are thinking....I need one of those!! Well not to worry your little chibi gamer head....they are for sale at my etsy.com store located here-------------->https://www.etsy.com/listing/157446906/fantasy-gaming-chibi-house-kit?

so get one before they are gone.

So I got some catching up to do. Gotta post some miniatures and projects that I've been working on. So keep looking here for some updates soon. Till then....you know the drill ;)

MiniArt Store is launched tentatively!

If you noticed at the the side of my blog page there is a link to the MiniArt store. Not a lot being offered but if you want your own bases here is the place to get them. If it turns out to be successful, I might add more stuff. Again I am sorry I can't offer international orders. The logistics are too complicated at the moment, but I might investigate how to offer it in the future if there is interest. Here's a preview of what I have in stock:

and some painted examples

check it out and if you have any questions please let me know.

Keep on gaming!

Hydra W.I.P.

Well I know it's been a few months but I have been busy getting stuff done. Just want to post my hydra from Impact Miniatures. I am enjoying painting this. I'll do a more detailed write up once I am done with it. 

Anyone planning on going to CMON Expo, I'll be there. Let me know if you are going as well and we can meet up.
Keep on gaming!

How to build your own X-Wing Miniatures Senator Shuttle

My first almost completed project for the beginning of the year is a Senator's Shuttle for use in the X-wing Miniatures game. If you buy the core box you receive a card board card with a picture of the shuttle on it to use. Well that won't do. I like to represent objectives for games in 3 dimensions not 2. So I got out my tools and got to work.

After some playing around with the shape here is the finished product. It's mostly made from square styrene rod glued together to build the shape of the shuttle. I used 1/2 round styrene and flat plastic strips to add detail to the ship. The engines and the front of the ship are some blocks from the machine builder mold from Hirst-Arts. I cast the pieces in urethane plastic for durability. While I like the result, I figured there's got to be a better and easier way to build this. After looking at some pieces from the machine builder mold I found a way to quickly build a Senator's Shuttle and even create a whole fleet of them if you like.  

So unfortunately for this tutorial you will need to own, or borrow Industrial Accessory Mold #326 and the Machinery Builder Mold #327 found here. If you have never used Hirst-Arts, I totally recommend all of Bruce's product lines of molds he has to offer. The quality of the molds themselves is mind blowing and the detail is amazing. I currently own about 20 molds and use them for a lot of my hobby projects. But if you don't want to spend the money, there are a bunch of licensed vendors who sell casts of most of the mold lines. So you'll need the following pieces in the photo.

To make it a bit easier I labeled which pieces come from which mold. Unfortunately you will need to cast mold 327 six times to get the bottom pieces since they only get cast 2 at a time. 

So now it's just a matter of gluing the pieces together in the following fashion to make the essential pieces of the Senator's ship. The pieces that make up the engines are supposed to be chemical containers and have a tiny skull in the center of the diamond. I just take an x-acto knife and scrape it off, but if you want you can leave it on. 

Then it's a matter of gluing all the pieces together and done and done. So this new version is pretty simple to make. I think I glued it together in 10 minutes. Casting the pieces took way longer. But while you could use this ship as is, you can take it a bit further and add some more details to give it more of the Star Wars aesthetic.

All I did was cut up some styrene half rod and smaller styrene rod and glued it to the hull. Now it has a bit more detail and looks more Star Wars like. The awesome part is that the pieces from the Hirst-Arts molds give it most of the detail so you don't really have to do much after. 

A little paint and it will be ready to hit the table. So there you have it. Not much of a tutorial but I tried to simplify the process to make it possible for people who don't have much modeling experience can build one easily. So one project off to a start and it is still January! This might be the year of the hobbies yet ;). Any questions feel free to ask and as always....Keep on gaming!

Another year almost gone but refocusing for 2013 :)

Well the start of a new year is upon us, which means it's time to refocus on priorities. This year was more invested on my family, and with whatever extra time I had, I spent it trying to learn calculus and level up on Skyrim (which ended up taking 8 months of my spare hours at night). While the Christmas break is a great time to get some projects done for many, it usually means giving up my hobby space for our Christmas tree.

Here is my hobby space currently. I would complain but I do enjoy Christmas so it is a minor sacrifice. Although I am sure my family rather see the tree year round then my desk with all my junk on it ;).

One of the biggest realizations this year is that I will never find the time to build and paint my 3rd edition Space Hulk game. I bought it when it got released and to this day all I ever did was remove the shrink wrap. So I went ahead and placed it on ebay. Well if you are inclined to get a copy mine is listed here: Space Hulk and ends in a few days. 

So while it was a dry year for hobbies, 2013 will hopefully be more devotion to getting a couple hobby related things done in my spare time. That will also be a challenge since I am realizing that my spare time is becoming more scarce since my son is getting older and we are enjoying more outdoor activities together.  

But at the same time he is also starting to take interest in some of my hobbies so eventually that spare time will become quality time with him....well one can dream right ;).

Right now X-wing seems to be a game I can play and do easy projects for. One of those being building a Death Star board. My wife purchased a 6"x 6" mold from Combat Wombat miniatures so I can make it possible. I've already cast 4 tiles using Smooth-on 300 and they came out pretty well. 

Combat Wombat also sells a completed 3'x3' board with turrets for 99 dollars. While it was tempting to just purchase the whole thing, I want to have the versatility to build a Death Star trench if I wanted to. Of course as of this writing it seems like a lot of folks want their own Death Star so he has ceased production on the 99 dollar board till he can catch up with orders. Depending on how much you want to spend money or time to put work into, the cost of both the mold and the board will pretty much even out.  

After doing some math I figured I spend 45 dollars for the mold, I can usually get Smooth-on 300 for a 30%-40% discount and would need about 2 pounds worth of casting material so that would be about $30-$35, add the 6 turrets he offers for $15 and you pretty much hit his price point give or take. The benefit to the mold will be if you can make the mold survive the 36 casts required for a 3'x3' board you can then use it to make a trench run board.

Here is the mold I received from Combat Wombat. Now from what I read on his website, he is a Army veteran which I have the up most respect for. I gladly support someone who defended our country and is trying to make a living by selling products they made. But as a fair warning if you go the mold route, don't expect to get a mold at the level of quality of Hirst-Arts. My mold had a few defects, and while it may require some sanding to even out the tile casts, the tiny defects on the surface are hardly noticeable. Some of my casting defects can easily be fixed with putty or light sanding. My only worry now is that I got some tearing on my last cast even after spraying it down heavily with mold release. So just a precaution if you are planning to purchase the mold.

Now I don't want to be overly negative or leave on a sour note. The tile cast themselves are very detailed and with Smooth-on 300 they are durable and will last a very long time. I recommend picking up a set or a mold if you want your own Death Star. With the Falcon and Slave I release on the horizon, I am looking forward to recreating the trench run from Episode IV.

So hopefully you all got some great hobby gifts this year. Here's to a hobby filled 2013!! Happy New Year and as always keep on gaming!